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Council Partners recognized for contributions to connected car tech

Thu, 2017-06-08 12:43 -- Doug Peeples

Photo credit: Local Motors

Our coverage of developments in connected cars and autonomous vehicles gets a lot of attention from readers. And there's good reason for it. The vehicles and the technologies that make them possible are expected to have a substantial impact on our city transportation systems and urban mobility, as well as our built environment (what our cities will look like in the future.) Council Global Lead Partners IBM and Qualcomm, both actively involved in connected car development, were recently recognized as winners in the industry's prestigious TU-Automotive Awards program. We thought you'd like to know. — Doug Peeples

The TU-Automotive Awards pull in about 400 nominations from all over the world. They're judged by a panel of recognized experts in the connected car and related industries on four criteria: innovation, industry engagement, user experience and market update.

For IBM and Local Motors, the award was for Olli, an autonomous electric shuttle. Olli, described by IBM as the first "self-driving cognitive vehicle," was built by Local Motors and IBM's Watson contributed its cognitive rider interface.

TU-Automotive judges explained the award with the comments "Olli was selected because it is providing an important reminder we need to stop thinking of cars in the same way."

Qualcomm's drive data platform collects and analyzes data from a variety of vehicle sensors and is intended to further the development of smart vehicles that know their location, can monitor and learn driving patterns and perceive their surroundings and share that information.

Judges said the Qualcomm platform was selected "because it is the most advanced integration for enabling technology and connectivity that will allow mobility to change."

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Doug Peeples is a Portland, Oregon-based writer specializing in technology and energy. Follow @smartccouncil on Twitter.